Last week in our Becoming a WAHM series, I talked about howworking at home is just that—it’s work. If you are not prepared to put in lots
of hours and lots of effort, there’s likely no point in starting in the first
place since I can guarantee you that it won’t be easy. Building a successful
business takes time, diligence, and lots of plain ole’ hard work.

Once you are determined that you’re willing to exert the
energy it will require, you’re not ready to start working from home just yet. First, you need to
take some time to examine your life. Step back and ponder
how organized (or disorganized!) your life is.

Do you feel like things are running smoothly most days and
that you have extra time to devote to a new endeavor? Or do you feel like you
are running around like a chicken with your head cut off barely keeping your
head above water?

If the latter describes you, then now is definitely not the
time to be adding something like working from home to your plate. Instead, I
recommend that you take the next month and evaluate your priorities, schedule, and activities. Are you willing to cut activities from your life in order to
focus part of your time and energies to starting a business? If so, what can
you start cutting back on today to free up more time for entrepreneurial things?

Don’t just think about cutting back or paring down—do it! If you’re
really serious about becoming a WAHM, it’s going to mean some temporary
sacrifices in order to achieve your long-term goals. You can’t do everything so in order to say “yes” to something, you invariably need to say “no” to something else.

I also highly encourage you to spend a few months
developing a good routine and solid organization into your life. Running a successful
business requires organization—not only
on business pursuits, but also when it comes to home management. Balancing
business stuff with your much more important priorities of being a wife, mom, and
home manager mean you must have a plan and you must have order in your life.
Otherwise, you’ll become slave to the tyranny of the urgent. Ask me how I know. 🙂

If you are struggling with time management, I wrote a series
on this subject on my other blog which you can read here (I’ll warn you, it’s rather long–start at the bottom of the page to read the posts in order!). For those interested, I also recently did a series on Successful Home Management with Toddlers.

Please know that I’m
still sorting things out myself and we definitely have days when I run around
in circles and accomplish next to nothing besides putting out fires; however,
by purposefully committing to develop organization and routine into our home,
things run much more smoothly. And it’s most assuredly only the grace of God and purposeful organization that enables me to be a wife, mom, homemaker, and blogger.

Just for fun: For those of you who work from home or have quite full plates, what’s your biggest time management tip or helpful idea for those who feel like they are drowning? I’d love to hear!

I pulled the freebie link I listed this morning for the subscription to Parents magazine since we found out it wasn’t completely free. However, thanks to Heather for reminding me that you can still get a free subscription to Parents magazine by watching some Johnson & Johnson commercials here at AdPerk.

Oh and I believe the formula samples and the subscription to American Baby at the link I listed this morning are completely free. (Let me know if for some reason that isn’t the case for you, though! I try very hard to post only freebies with no strings attached so I appreciate you letting me know if you find "a string attached"!)

Thanks to everyone who emailed and commented about the free diapers at Walgreens.

I mentioned earlier that by combining the EasySaver coupon and the store sale with the current Register Reward deal, you could come out with a sweet deal on diapers. However, the deal can be made even sweeter if you are able to find the $50 Walgreens Savings Book in your pharmacy (you’ll likely need to ask for these).

The $50 Saving Book contains another diaper coupon for $2/1 package of diapers. If your store allows you to use both the Savings Book coupon and the EasySaver coupon together (most should accept both–as these are store coupons–but there are reports of not all stores accepting them), then here’s how the deal breaks down:

Buy 3 packages of Walgreens brand Jumbo diapers–on sale for $5.99 this weekUse $5/2 EasySaver coupon–this should take $2.50 off each pack of diapersUse $2/1 Savings Book coupon–this should take $2 off each pack of diapersSpend $4.47 plus tax out of pocketGet $5 Register Rewards backFree after coupons and Register Rewards!

This deal cannot be "rolled", meaning you cannot use the $5 RR you earn to buy more diapers and earn another $5 RR (the computers are set up to not print out another RR for the same deal if you paid with an RR you earned from doing the deal before). However, you can do as many separate transactions as you like and then take the $5 RRs and use them to buy other groceries or items you need!

After a few rather sparse CVS weeks, I’m excited about the deals this week–especially since I got some great CRTs which match some of these deals! Here are the best deals I see so far (let me know if you see any mistakes):

******ECB DEALS******

As always, remember that if you’ve not updated your email address here, you can do that and print out a $4/$20 CVS coupon.

Buy 1 Bic Soliel Razor and 1 4 ct. Cartridges, Get $5 ECBs (Limit 4)These are reported to be priced at around $6.99 each. Buy both and use two $4/1 coupons from the 06/02 SmartSource insert.$0.98 after coupons and ECBs

Buy 1 Right Guard Professional Strength at $6.99, Get $5 ECBs (Limit 1)Use $1/1 coupon$0.99 after coupon and ECBs

******POSSIBLE ECB DEALS******

Buy two Coppertone Sun Care Products, Get $10 ECBs (Limit 1). If the lip care products are included like last time, this could be a money-maker. Let us know if you try it. Also, there is a $3/$15 face care CRT out which could be used with this.

Life Savers are on sale B1G1Buy 2 and use the B1G1 coupon 06/08 SmartSourceFree after coupon

Kashi Cereals are on sale for $2.50 eachUse the $2/1 coupons here or here (or from the VocalPoint mailer)$0.50 each after coupon

CVS-Brand Diapers are on sale Buy 1, Get 1 50% Off – Use a $3/$10 CVS brand coupon with this to get an even better deal!

Trial-sized Johnson & Johnson baby productsare regularly-priced at $1– use this coupon and get them free.

Schick Disposable Razors (trial size) are $0.99 each – Buy 2 and use the $2/1 coupon from last week’s Red Plum insert to get them free (your store might allow you to only buy 1 and get $1 overage!)

And I mentioned this a few weeks ago, but don’t forget about the $2/1 CVS skincare product coupon here (print at 50%). There
are a number of small skincare products this could be used on such as
the Essence of Beauty sponges and loofahs, hand sanitizers, soaps,
lotions, and more. It will be up to your individual store as to what
constitutes a "skincare" product. Here’s one small money-maker deal
idea using this coupon, let us know what others you find:

Buy 1 Listerine Smart Rinse (250 ml) at $3.49, Get $3.49 ECBs (Limit 4)Use $1/1 coupon hereFree plus overage after coupon and ECBs(There are reports of some stores having tear pads with a full rebate on this product so look for those!)

New to CVS-ing? Don’t try to make heads or tails of this post because it probably won’t make a lot of sense to you. Instead, go here where I explain the CVS program in full detail. Want to join in the fun and incredible savings? Then go here where I share more about how to make it work for you. After that, go here where my friend FishMama maps out a simple plan for beginning CVS-ers to maximize on the ECB deals this month.

———————–

Share Your Scenarios!

Have
your shopping trip planned or did you come up with a great deal
scenario/idea? Just post about it on your blog and leave your link
below. Please include full details on coupons you are using, etc. so
that those who are just beginning to get the hang of CVS can especially
benefit from seeing things broken down for them like this. If you don’t
have a blog, feel free to share your scenarios in the comment section.

Note: So as not to confuse the newbies, please only post deal scenarios/deals which are applicable at CVS this week. Thanks so much!

*DEAL*Buy 3 Jumbo Packages of Comfort Stretch Diapers or Training Pants at $5.99 eachUse $5/2 coupon from July EasySaver bookletSpend $12.97 out of pocket (it is possible that the above coupon might take off $2.50 per pack of diapers instead of $5 so your out of pocket total would be less)Get $5 Register Reward$7.97 for 3 packages of diapers after Register Reward! (or possibly only $5.47 if the coupon takes off $2.50 per package of diapers!)

Desitin is also part of the above deal. It is on sale for $5.99 and there is a $1/1 manufacturer’s coupon here plus a $1/1 coupon in the July EasySaver booklet.

Buy 2 Post Cereals at $2.50 Each, Get $2 Register Rewards

*DEAL*Buy 2 Post Honey Bunches of Oats
Use 2 $2/1 coupons here, here, here, here
(if you got the free coupon from the recent insert deal where you could
send in the other cereal brand coupons and get a free box, use that one
instead!)
Spend $1 out of pocket
Get $2 Register Rewards back!Free plus $1 overage after coupons and Register Rewards!